Friday, May 8, 2009

Lit Circle #5 p. 3

4 comments:

Now that I have finished the book, I think it appropriate to analyze Orwell's intent in writing it. At first, it presents Oceania in 1984 as somewhat socialistic, where everyone is treated equally under one supreme ruler. This would be fitting for the post-WWII era, when the free world was combating Communism. However, in "Goldstein's" book, Orwell tells us that 1984's society is not a socialist nation at all--it still has the age-old caste system of high, middle, and low. In fact, Orwell presented such classes as evil and subtly praised socialism, that the Party merely did it wrong. In this we see Orwell's intent: 1984 wasn't a critique on socialism at all, but a prediction of what can happen when the population forfeits some freedom to gain some safety, never being aware of the ideological battle swirling around it.

For the past week, our group has been trying to pinpoint specific examples in the book that parallel the novel's curriculum. For example, we have been looking closely at the text for motifs, themes, important ideas, and controversial ideas. We have been finding and marking these controversial things, and have been trying to argue that these things shouldn't be a reason to ban I Robot. On Friday, we wrapped up our analyzation of the text, and we figured out the grade level of approval and the reasons why. We have the first and second parts of the presentation figured out which refer to the books relevance to the 9th grade curriculum and the controversials ideas in the novel. This week, our presentation will be Friday. We also planned our PPT and handouts for our presentation. We will use notecards, so we are will work on this the next week. We will meet after school if necessary. Overall, it looks like we are in good shape. We have the ideas, so we just need to piece them together to make a presentation.

After completing I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov, our group discussed three main questions. The first was “What is the potential underlying theme of the story, or how does each short story connect to each other?” The replies for this question were pretty much agreed on, with everyone agreeing that the short stories were to make the plot of the story flow in a mysterious plot line that was there for the reader to figure out. The story, like most stories, was written in the past, about the future, and portrayed the advances in robotic technology from the beginning to the end.

The second question asked brought up lots of conversation. The question: “What is the possible meaning of writing the story? Does it contain more than what is read by the reader? Is there a message/statement trying to be said/made in the book?” came up with various answers. We decided that if we depend on technology too much, we won’t have anything to rely on if it fails. In today’s society, electronics are a big part of everyone’s lives. If one day the power were to go out, or we didn’t have our cell phones, computers, iPods, etc…, we wouldn’t know how to communicate or go about our daily lives or function under today’s standards. This answer lead to the question of “What constitutes a living thing, and how far will we go before we give up our rights. In the last chapter of our book, humans were no longer independent beings on earth, rather sections of planets ruled under the regime of robots. Our book contains a sense of science fiction mixed with slight reality, just as in Fahrenheit 451. These books were both written in the past, but still take place in a futuristic time period as we read them. We discussed whether the book was showing a new frontier, or was a warning that as we advance into the future, we need to be careful on how big technology becomes in our everyday life. The other point of perspective brought up was how even today, we are outnumbered by machines. Electric household items, cars, and technological devices are common to most. We view this now just as progress, but it can get out of control if we are not careful.

The final question asked was, “How does the book fit under the semester question ‘price of progression’”? The responses varied, but most included the ups and downs of progress. This can be related all the way back to the time of cavemen, and the use of clubs, versus bow and arrows. As we continue forward in technological uses, we tend to lose the skills we had before. Such an example is texting. Today’s generation has grown up with cell phones, IM, face book, and other means of communication with the outside world. When our parents were growing up, no one had a cell phone or computer, so their means of communication were through phone conversations. When texting can be done, more people choose that mean to communicate because it is quick and easy. Will this diminish our conversational skills as we get older? Some adults are not fans of texting, because they believe that eventually, we will not be able to carry out a conversation, but instead, texting will be our main form of communication. With more knowledge, comes more risk. If we know so much about the new and great, we risk losing everything when it fails. As we go into the future, we need to be careful to see the things that could potential cause a greater risk if it backfires, or becomes out of control. Technology, even when intended for good, can be used for destruction as see in our book, when the robots eventually are ruling humans.

In our last lit circle, we discussed the end of the book. Overall we were pretty disappointed with the conclusion of the story. But we realized that Orwell meant it to be that way so that it is more of a warning to us, and it doesn't leave the reader with any warm, fuzzy feelings about the book. He wants us to see how important it is to know what you want in life and fight for it and never give in. Winston tries to hold out as long as he can against Big Brother, but it is disappointing in the end when he gives up his fight. Once we understood the purpose of the ending, we all felt a lot more satisfied with it. The rest of the time we talked about details for the presentation.